Catholic Prayer App Hallow Platforming ‘Fringe Elements’ On Catholic Right

A hugely popular Catholic prayer app that’s shot up the App store rankings is platforming controversial Catholic figures including chastity influencers, and could be presenting them as having mainstream views, experts have told VICE News.

The Hallow app, which has enjoyed venture capital success with a $40 million investment in its last funding round and is backed by Peter Thiel and J.D. Vance, has made mainstream media coverage in the last few weeks including actor Mark Wahlberg who spoke about his faith on NBC’s Today Show as a paid spokesperson for the app. Classical singer Andrea Bocelli and his children have been appearing in social media ads for Hallow, which co-founder and CEO Alex Jones – no relation to the InfoWars founder – said was the first faith-based app to break into the top 10 downloads in the App store. 

But in addition to mainstream celebrities, Hallow is also platforming other more right-wing US Catholics. 

Jim Caviezel, an actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, has been featuring in ads and leads the Stations of the Cross on the app as part of their Lenten prayer offering. In 2021 he spoke at two QAnon conferences, including a conference in Las Vegas where he delivered a rambling speech on the need to fight Satan and liberal values that ended in the rallying QAnon cry of the “storm is upon us”, referencing the day followers anticipated that Donald Trump would arrest a cabal of celebrities, officials and Democratic politicians they believed were running a child sex-trafficking ring. 

“Fringe elements on the Catholic right are nothing new, but Donald Trump's presidency and his refusal to accept the election results after his defeat really energized a Catholic subculture that is now fertile ground for unhinged conspiracy theories and reactionary politics,” John Gehring, the Catholic programme director at Faith in Public Life, an advocacy group based in Washington DC, told VICE News.

“Catholic bishops and other church leaders must be vigilant and never be associated with any platform that helps mainstream and legitimize individuals who are trafficking in white Christian nationalism and dangerous conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”

One of the app’s funders is Thiel, one of the big financial supporters of pro-Donald Trump candidates during the 2022 midterm elections. Thiel co-founded PayPal, and is believed to have donated millions of dollars to 2022 candidates in the House and Senate who promoted Trump’s false election fraud line. Narya Capital, co-founded by Ohio Senator Vance and backed by Thiel, has also invested in Hallow

The app features voices known for their conservative stances towards sexual and reproductive health rights. Lila Rose delivers prayers on the app, who is the president and founder of Live-Action, an anti-abortion advocacy group with a significant social media presence which has recently been protesting outside drugstores that disperse abortion pills. Her prayers on the app are mainly focused on the Virgin Mary as well as a “Litany for Life” where she says "help us to respect human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death." 

Rose has received numerous grants in the past from the Leadership Institute, an advocacy group that trains conservative activists. 

In an emailed statement, Hallow co-founder Jones told VICE News that the app stands “proudly with Pope Francis and the Church’s pro-life stance.”

“Hallow is a Catholic prayer app. We take care to make sure that all of the content on the app is in-line with Church teaching, while at the same time, our goal is to make Hallow as welcoming, inclusive, and non-judgmental a place as possible,” the statement said. “We stand proudly with Pope Francis and the Church’s pro-life stance, while at the same time are blessed to have people of all faiths from all across the political spectrum who have come together in the Hallow community to pray and it’s incredibly important to us that each person knows that they are welcome and loved by God.”

He continued: “As far as partnering with individual actors or speakers, we’re grateful to partner with many different people from all walks who help bring Scripture to life in a new and inspiring way. We have hundreds of individuals who assist with recording content on the app and they each have their own personal views on many different matters. While we make certain that every piece of content on the app is welcoming, accessible, rooted in Scripture, and in-line with Church teaching, we do not stand behind or endorse every past personal statement, action, or opinion of each of the individual voice actors.”

Popular Catholic social media influencers have been creating sponsored content promoting the Hallow as well as delivering prayers on it, including Emily Wilson, who has 131,000 subscribers on YouTube and whose most popular videos are vlogs of her experience abstaining from sex until marriage. 

She is not the only “chastity” influencer. Another Hallow prayer-giver, Sarah Swafford, is a speaker for the Chastity Project, an organisation which preaches, erroneously, that “safe sex is a LIE” to schoolchildren. Jason Evert, the Chastity Project founder, offers Psalms of Hope on Hallow. The group features blogs on its website featuring individuals celebrating they have walked away from a “LGBTQ+ mindset” and “embrace chastity”, and that “contraception won’t empower you”.

Matt Fradd, a public speaker who frequently collaborates with Evert, also reads a prayer on Hallow, and is a vocal proponent of living a “porn-free” life. 

The app features members of the clergy who have been vocal in anti-abortion advocacy, including priest and social media star Father Mike Schmitz, a former keynote speaker at March For Life, and Bishop Barron, the founder of Catholic media organisation Word on Fire and a frequent critic of President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion. Other figures who feature on Word on Fire programming also appear on Hallow. 

Hallow is available in multiple languages, as well as to users aged four and above. There are several prayers targeted towards “Littles,” those aged 3-7 years old. 

Dr Dheepa Sundaram, scholar of performance, ritual, and digital culture at the University of Denver, told VICE News the app appeared to offer “a religion marketing strategy that leverages the devotional needs of adherents to promote ideological and political ideas as part of authentic religious devotion”.  

She added: “In general, digital religion spaces, like analogue spaces, rely on spiritual authorities and authenticating mechanisms to be trusted by users/adherents. It seems like this app is intended to appeal to conservative Catholics given the lineup of speakers and the priests who are doing the praying.”

Jamie L. Manson, the president of Catholics for Choice, a pro-abortion rights group, told VICE News: “There is a great deal of longing for community among young Catholics, for a sense of purpose and tradition in a church where their lives can often feel overlooked and their voices often go unheard. Far-right forces try to fill this gap, sinking enormous amounts of money into the development of Catholic apps like Hallow that pose as spiritual resources, but in reality are thinly-veiled attempts to put a fresh face on their outdated, extreme, retrograde beliefs about gender, sexuality, reproductive healthcare, and the role of women.”

Manson added: “These views, which are vastly out of step with the beliefs of the majority of Catholics, are part and parcel of the Christian right-wing crusade against abortion – and they won’t ultimately feed young Catholics or bring them any closer to finding the true spiritual nourishment they seek.”